Wright Glider

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The Wright Brothers developed a series of three manned gliders after preliminary tests with a kite as they worked towards achieving flight.

1 1899 Kite
2 1900 Glider
3 1901 Glider
4 1902 Glider
- 4.1 Replicas
- 4.2 Specifications
5 References
6 External links

[edit] 1899 Kite

The 1899 kite had a wingspan of only 5 feet (1.5 meters). This craft, although much too small to carry a pilot, tested the concept of wing-warping that would prove essential to the brothers' solving the problem of controlled flight. It helped them find the concepts for their gliders.

[edit] 1900 Glider

The first free-flight glider was based on data from Otto Lilienthal's lift tables. On the Wrights' first expedition to Kitty Hawk, they tested the glider between October 5 and 18, 1900, mostly as a kite. They found the craft responsive to wing-warping when flown with control ropes handled from the ground, but lift was less than calculated. They made a mere dozen or so free glides on only a single day and abandoned the glider at the site of its last landing. It was carried off in a July, 1901 gale and never seen again.

[edit] 1901 Glider

The 1901 Wright Glider was the second of the Wright Brothers experimental gliders. It was similar to the 1900 version, but with larger wings. It first flew on July 27, 1901, and was retired on August 17. During this short time between 50 and 100 free flights were made, in addition to tethered flights as a kite.

Orville with the 1901 glider, its nose pointing skyward.

There were problems with the wing ribs, which flexed under the weight of the pilot, distorting the aerofoil shapes of the wings. The brothers fixed the trouble, but the wings still produced much less lift than expected, and wing-warping sometimes made the glider turn opposite the intended direction. After testing concluded, the brothers stored the glider in their shed near Kitty Hawk. The shed and glider were badly damaged later by windstorms. The wing uprights were salvaged for the 1902 Glider, but the rest was abandoned.

[edit] 1902 Glider

The 1902 Wright Glider(Wilbur piloting) on one of its early test flights before replacement of the fixed double vertical rudder with a single steerable rudder.

The 1902 Wright Glider was the third free-flight glider built by Orville and Wilbur Wright and tested at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This was the first of the brothers' gliders to incorporate yaw control, and its design led directly to the 1903 Wright Flyer.

The brothers designed the 1902 glider during the winter of 1901-1902 at their home in Dayton, Ohio. They designed the wing based on data from extensive airfoil tests conducted on a homemade wind tunnel. They built many of the components of the glider in Dayton, but they completed assembly at their Kitty Hawk camp in September of 1902. They began testing on September 19. Over the next five weeks, they made between 700 and 1000 glide flights (as estimated by the brothers, who did not keep detailed records of these tests). The longest of these was 622.5 ft (189.7 m) in 26 seconds.

In 1903, when the brothers returned to Kitty Hawk to test their powered machine, they brought the 1902 glider out of storage and flew it again to hone their piloting skills before the powered Flyer was ready. The glider went back into storage at the camp when the brothers returned home for Christmas. When they next visited Kitty Hawk in 1908 to test their improved Flyer III, the storage shed had collapsed and the glider inside was wrecked.

[edit] Replicas

A number of replicas of the 1902 Glider have been built, starting with two 1934 replicas by the U.S. Army Air Corps, built with the cooperation of Orville Wright. One of these survives in the visitors' center at Kitty Hawk; the other was destroyed in an accident.

In 1980, Wright enthusiast Rick Young built a working replica of the 1902 Glider. It has appeared in numerous films and television documentaries, including a 1986 IMAX On the Wing.

[edit] Specifications

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 16 ft 1 in (4.9 m)
Wingspan: 32 ft 1 in (9.8 m)
Height: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Wing area: 305 ft² (28.3 m²)
Empty weight: 117 lb (53 kg)
Max takeoff weight: lb (kg)

Performance

Range: 622.5 ft (189.7 m)
Wing loading: lb/ft² (kg/m²)

[edit] References

Crouch, Tom, "The Thrill of Invention." Air&Space/Smithsonian, April/May 1998, pp. 22-30. Read the article online.
Wescott, Lynanne, Paula Degen (1983). Wind and Sand: The Story of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. Includes excerpts from diaries and correspondence pertaining to the Wright Brothers and their experiments.